1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar

The Mint Act of April 2, 1792, established the United
States Mint and a bimetallic coinage system based on the silver dollar
and the gold eagle as the primary monetary units of the nation.

However, the silver dollar was not coined until 1794. It might have
appeared sooner had it not been for the $10,000 bond required of Chief
Coiner Henry Voigt and Assayer Albion Cox.

When neither Voigt nor Cox
could post bond, they were denied permission to handle precious metals,
making it impossible for the production of gold or silver coinage to go
forward.

The first Director of the Mint, David Rittenhouse, used his influence
with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George
Washington to reduce bond to $5000 and $1000 respectively, amounts both
could post.

On October 15, 1794, a total of 1,758 silver dollars were struck on a manually powered coin press. This proved to be the
entire mintage of the 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar. Rittenhouse took
possession of entire group and personally distributed them, keeping at
least one for himself (see below). Most of them ended up in general
circulation.

Today, the 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar is celebrated as one of the
greatest coins in American numismatics. Of the original mintage,
perhaps 8% are known to survive. Intense pressure from collectors
virtually guarantees 1794 silver dollar prices to remain on a steep
climb.

On May 14, 2010, a 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar sold for $7.85
million. It is in near perfect condition, and is believed by many
scholars to be the very first U.S. silver dollar to come off the
coining press. This fabulous coin was taken into protective care by
Director Rittenhouse and carefully guarded for many generations. On
January 24, 2013, this
exact same coin sold for over $10
million!

1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar (G-4 Condition)

The 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar is
one of the most historically significant coins in American numismatics.
It was the first year of the dollar, the monetary unit of the United
States, and was produced in very limited quantities. Collectors pay big
money to own a 1794 silver dollar. Take a look at the chart above. The
blue line depicts the percent price increase of the 1794 silver dollar
since Year 2000. It is completely off the charts. You can't see it, but
in 2008-09, it reached 12.5 times its value, compared to what it was
worth in 2000. It has receded since its all time high, but it is still
fair to say it has increased in value many times over the last decade
or so. The red line charts the progress of the Rare Coin Values Index, which takes the combined
percent change over time of a pre-selected group of 87 rare US coins,
the purpose of which is to understand the strength and direction of the
overall rare US coin market. The Index uses Year 2000 as a baseline.
The 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar is one of the 87 coins included in
the Index.

Lately, the Rare Coin Values Index is behaving like it thinks its the Dow Jones. That would be an exaggeration of course, because the Index is not climbing at THAT meteoric pace, but it has now closed…